Maureen Catbagan
Time Capsules for Manongs & Manangs (excerpt), 2025
Mixed Media
44 x 12 x 4 inches
$10,000 each
 
The time capsules memorialize Filipino elders who were part of the 1965 Delano Grape Strike. Begun by Larry Itliong and later joined by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, Filipino and Mexican farm workers combined into UFW (United Farm Workers) and became one of the largest and most successful solidarity movements in American history. Their five-year strike sought better pay, working conditions, and housing. The time capsules contain goods from neighborhood stores in Little Manila, Woodside as a community connection to their fruits of labor. It is a layering of time through a present offering to our past elders in the form of a future commemoration.